Ben Stokes
Credit: PTI Photo
London: England skipper Ben Stokes was gutted to miss the final Test of a fascinatingly fought series against India due to a right shoulder injury, saying he even considered playing purely as a batter before being forced to take the harsh call of sitting out due to medical advice.
“Yeah, obviously disappointed to not be able to finish the series,” said a sullen-faced Stokes, who is a candidate to win the Player of the Series award with 17 wickets and 304 runs, at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “I’ve got a decent tear in one of the muscles that I can’t pronounce because I don’t know how to say it. It took as long as we could to make that decision around that. Obviously, a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff when you find out what you’ve done.
“I came down here this morning to give myself every chance. Obviously, just to play as a batter, bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results (from the fourth Test in Manchester). I think you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz (Brendon McCullum), and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there in the middle of the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made. It’s one of those where you’re weighing up the risk-reward. The risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is. I wouldn’t expect to put anyone else, any of my other players, at risk with an injury like this.”
Stokes and some of his England team-mates received a lot of flak for his petulant behaviour at Old Trafford. When drinks were called for at the start of the final hour of play, Stokes offered a handshake to the Indians in acceptance of a draw. Indian skipper Gill, however, refused to accept the offer as he wanted Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to complete their centuries. Stokes and some of his colleagues mocked Jadeja and Sundar.
When asked if he would do things differently in hindsight, Stokes said no. “No regrets, but I think it’s one of those where when you’ve been there in the field for 250 overs, you do have a bit more of an understanding towards both sides. Two lads, Jadeja and Washington, played incredibly well up until that point, so you sort of understand as to why they wanted to stay out there and get the hundreds.
“But again, I said at the end of the game, fair enough, but I’m not going to bowl any more bowlers in a situation there where we can’t win the game and expose any of those guys to injury. We’re over it. I think India are over that whole thing. Let’s just try our best not to focus too much on a 20-minute period of cricket. It’s been such a good series so far.”